For the love of Earth, stop traveling
washingtonpost.com
For the love of Earth, stop traveling
1–10 of 51 posts
Re: For the love of Earth, stop traveling
#2Or stop consuming so much.
Traveling, especially without airplanes (which is perfectly possible in lots of parts of the world -- vacationing to a train/car-accessible country that is), is trivial compared to industrial production of crap.
Making advertising illegal would decrease needless consumption (and pollution) by a ton, plus all the benefits for our quality of life.
Re: For the love of Earth, stop traveling
#3Or stop consuming so much. Traveling, especially without airplanes (which is perfectly possible in lots of parts of the world -- vacationing to a train/car-accessible country that is), is trivial compared to industrial production of crap. Making advertising illegal would decrease needless consumption (and pollution) by a ton, plus all the benefits for our quality of life.
>Making advertising illegal
Might as well make money illegal.
Re: For the love of Earth, stop traveling
#4Telling people to please stop doing things that are profoundly enjoyable, in opinion columns, seems like the stupidest possible idea for how to solve the climate crisis.
Re: For the love of Earth, stop traveling
#5I disagree, here's Mark Twain's quote on the matter:
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad
Re: For the love of Earth, stop traveling
#6Re: For the love of Earth, stop traveling
#7Telling people to please stop doing things that are profoundly enjoyable, in opinion columns, seems like the stupidest possible idea for how to solve the climate crisis.
Also, you see, other peoples' travelings are mostly stupid and pointless, but my own travels enriches the world!
Re: For the love of Earth, stop traveling
#8I cringe a little when people on Twitter keep posting their FOO(plane->)BAR statuses about their many trips, like it's something to be proud of.
Sometimes there is no reasonable alternative to flying for a very important trip, but some people seem to not consider the problematic aspects at all.
Re: For the love of Earth, stop traveling
#9Or stop consuming so much. Traveling, especially without airplanes (which is perfectly possible in lots of parts of the world -- vacationing to a train/car-accessible country that is), is trivial compared to industrial production of crap. Making advertising illegal would decrease needless consumption (and pollution) by a ton, plus all the benefits for our quality of life.
>Making advertising illegal Might as well make money illegal.
Let's say you're selling product X at price Y. There are three kinds of people you could reach with advertising:
* People who have an unmet need for product X at price Y.
* People whose need for product X at price Y is already met, but who can be manipulated into buying from you rather than someone else.
* People who don't need product X at price Y, but can be manipulated into needing it.
Advertising is only good for society to the extent it reaches the first group. Influencing the second and third groups can be profitable for you, but on a societal scale it's just a game-theoretic arms race that wastes resources, plasters our environment with ads, and makes people miserable with new needs. We should totally try to discourage it.
Re: For the love of Earth, stop traveling
#10Or stop consuming so much. Traveling, especially without airplanes (which is perfectly possible in lots of parts of the world -- vacationing to a train/car-accessible country that is), is trivial compared to industrial production of crap. Making advertising illegal would decrease needless consumption (and pollution) by a ton, plus all the benefits for our quality of life.
>Making advertising illegal Might as well make money illegal.
I keep coming across this idea and as much as I dislike advertising, I have trouble seeing how making it illegal would reduce consumption. Intuitively, I've always perceived it as a zero sum game. Never heard of anyone who started sitting on top of a pile of cash after installing uBlock either.